Symbol and Consciousness in Phenomenology of J. W. Goethe
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SHS Web of Conferences 72, 03013 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf /20197203013 APPSCONF-2 019 Symbol and consciousness in phenomenology of J. W. Goethe Olga Shadrina1 1Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after M.V. Lomonosov, 163002, Arkhangelsk, Russia Abstract. This article is concerned with the prospects of philosophical knowledge in the 21st century against the background of “growing incompatibility of consciousness and culture” or “crisis of anthropos in the face of technos”. The article aims to clarify the contribution of J.W. Goethe in phenomenology of consciousness as an advanced field of the philosophical study. Novelty of the research methodology is achieved through the combination of the postmodern approach (“symbology”) developed by M.K. Mamardashvili and A.M. Pyatigoskiy and “philosophy of symbol” of “the first phenomenologist” J.W. Goethe. The author achieves her research objectives to conceptualize the Goethean phenomenological method and to determine future directions for its application by reviewing the research trends and findings of the current international studies conducted according to the “Goethean method”. This study focuses on the analysis of symbolism of intellectual perception represented in Goethe’s works. The phenomenological awareness of the process of thinking allows for “integrity” of human understanding, eliminates symbolization (superficiality), revitalizes creativity that can “connect all things in one”, distinguish “archetypes”, solve one task in different ways by moving beyond the subject-object relationship. Symbolically understood consciousness allows perceiving dialogic (subject-subjectivity) nature of thinking and constancy of co-existence of the “human-nature” and “human-culture” dimensions. Hence, this scientific method of the prominent German philosopher is otherwise named “eco-phenomenology”. Implications for future research the author of the article sees in a complete reinterpretation of the Goethean scientific and artistic heritage in the vein of his “philosophy of symbol”, which forecasted the advent of the Faustian era as well as suggested the ways to overcome the problem of postmodernist entropy. 1 General definition of the problem and its relation to important scientific and practical tasks M.K. Mamardashvili and A.M. Pyatigorskiy in their work “Symbol and Consciousness” define a major concern in terms of growing incompatibility between consciousness and culture that shall be resolved in order to overcome an “anthropological crisis”, in general, and to provide opportunities for further philosophical knowledge development, in particular Corresponding author: [email protected] © The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). SHS Web of Conferences 72, 03013 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf /20197203013 APPSCONF-2 019 [1]. “Whenever we observe the phenomenon of cultural development …, in the same historical period and geographical region we concurrently reveal the recession or regression of the symbolic consciousness and vice versa” [1]. The conditional limit of the progress of culture in such a situation is when a person is no longer included in the picture of consciousness, but this is impossible provided that there is a person for whom the culture, symbol and consciousness are obviously related, mutually indispensable, mutually conditioned structures. Here, it is the symbol that serves as a linking element, a mediator. Culture gives a shape to human consciousness and defines the results of thinking in the Nietzschean terms as “the Apollonian” principle. Consciousness (mind), in its turn, houses a “boiling cauldron of matters” (J.W. Goethe), archetypes, and “archaic words”, or a reservoir of cultural potencies. If postmodern culture manifests entropy (degradation of creative potential) as an aesthetic principle, then it is a loud statement of an imminent end, a crisis of consciousness, of human being and his culture, which is stated in a dead digital civilization that does not need anthropos, as well as the establishment of a post -cultural state of transhumanism. A horrifying picture, isn’t it? Neuropsychologists (T.V. Chernigovskaya) and theologists (E.I. Arinin) are among the first who warn of the danger of cultural decay. Philosophers, however, have littler zest for this issue. It is the philosophers who shall search for the ways to surmount the crisis related to the advancement of technos, the culture of consumption, on the one hand, and degradation of symbolic thought, dysfunction of consciousness, neuroticism and anaemia of contemporary culture, and unproductive consciousness, on the other hand, since “the whole science itself is intraphilosophic phenomenon” (M.K. Mamardashvili and A.M. Pyatigorskiy). What does philosophy have to offer to overcome the abovementioned crisis? It can offer a new approach to consciousness (thinking) analysis that allows activating reinterpretation, reviving consciousness, and giving an efficient (J.W. Goethe), creative, anthropological impulse to culture. This method is named phenomenology of consciousness. 2 Analysis of the recent advances and publications that first addressed the issue of the current study and identification of previously unresolved parts of the general problem, to which this article is devoted J.W. Goethe is named the first phenomenologist in the history of science [2]. His works are believed to contain an insight into the specific attitude that in the 20th century found its realization in the Husserl’s “realistic phenomenology” with his call to go “back to the things themselves!” [3]. Goethean method itself is named “phenomenology of nature” [4]. Since the end of the 20th century, a constellation of scholars demonstrated their interest to “phenomenological heritage” of the great German philosopher: A.Zajonc, D.Seamon, A.Kentsis, F.Amrine, F.Zucker, H.Wheeler, H.Bortoft, R.H.Brady, I.Brook, N.Hoffman, C.Holdrege, D.Sepper, J.Shotter among them. N.Ribe, F.Steinle, B.Bywater, B.D.Robbins, T.Toadvine carried on this tradition in the 21st century [4]. These authors were interested, in the first place, in “eco-phenomenology” of the great German philosopher as a scientific method. For example, following the scientific method developed by this scientist and poet, Australian scientist N. Hoffman performed a set of experiments to observe the metamorphoses of two Australian plants: Kunzea Ambigua and Banksia Integrifolia [5]. Even though N. Hoffman had earlier explained the principle of Goethean method as a “union of science and art”, the “philosophical-poetic essence of Goethean phenomenon” remained yet “beyond the scope of research”. It is precisely the domestic researchers who noted the “universal” nature of Goethean method of cognition. Nevertheless, only a small number of them, namely S.V. Laptinskaya [6], K.A. Svasyan [7], and O.N. Shadrina [8], 2 SHS Web of Conferences 72, 03013 (2019) https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf /20197203013 APPSCONF-2 019 performed “comprehensive research”. The said complementarity of “art” and “science” does not imply blending of cognitive discourses but facilitates holistic vision. All what a scientist must be able to do is “to look” and “to see”. It is worth noting that the topical issue of interrelation between philosophy (science) and literature (poetry, language, art) was analysed by the following foreign scholars: J.P. Sartre, H.G. Gadamer, G. Bachelard, R. Barthes, M. Heidegger, C. Wilson, P. de Man, I. Murdock, M. Blanchot, J.L. Nancy, M. Merleau-Ponty, A. Danto, P. Ricœur, G. Deleuze, and J. Deridda. Among Russian researchers who addressed this issue there were M.M. Bakhtin, S.S. Averintsev, M.K. Mamardashvili, N.B. Mankovskaya, M.P. Epstein, A.S. Kolesnikov, V.V. Bibikhin, V.M. Dianova, N.V. Tishunina, A.A. Gryakalov, and many more. The Russian and foreign Goethean science includes hundreds of names that may not be all listed here due to the limited size of this article. 3 Introduction of the main scope of research, including the full substantiation of scientific findings, and recommendations J.W. Goethe was the one who introduced the notion of “philosophy of symbol” with the symbol being viewed as an “archetype”. An archetypal phenomenon is the “creative idea” that engenders phenomenal variety (the highest level of this method is the creative level or the level of “Fire”). It may be expressed in creation, in the holistic art images - painting, poem, and sonata - that are infinitely beautiful and infinitely cognizable through various interpretations. An artistic image is a unity of form and content. It is through the image that the idea is revealed. By observing a variety of forms, we comprehend the unity of ideas. The “Faustian era”, prophesied by J.W. Goethe, that divided science, culture (art), and religion and “formalized” to maximum each strand of cognition within its own niche specialization, eventually exhausted humanity and resulted in two world wars, revolutions, current cultural and political existential crises. Culture and Nature (“Elective Affinities” by J.W. Goethe) “went into hibernation” (an image of the “glass coffin” in the symbolic novel) until “better days”. Phenomenological “vision” (thinking) allows restoring the “integrity of consciousness”, anthropological integrity, overcoming further “destruction” of the natural- cultural unity of the world and human being, directing the cultural development